We are anchored at Big Major’s Spot near Staniel Cay.  I’m not sure why it’s called a “spot” and not a “cay” but we are also next to Little Major’s Spot.  Perhaps there were two people named Major and this was their spot.  Big Major is known for having “wild pigs” although they aren’t really wild.  Some Staniel Cay residents left them on the island and now they come up to people in their dinghies and beg for food.  We got here yesterday and didn’t do much other than have dinner.  I had made homemade whole wheat buns.  We had been snorkeling a few days ago and captured enough conch to made conch fritters, so after Mark, Mark, and Bill (mostly Bill) cleaned the conch and tenderized it, Mark from Avalon brought his ingredients over to our boat and by dipping the conch in egg and then a beer batter, he fried them in canola oil.  They were very tender and delicious.  Joanne from Avalon made three bean salad and JoAnne from Ultra made fantastic homemade chocolate cupcakes.  It was a great meal with great friends. We did make a short run to one of the three stores on Staniel Cay and bought some food.  While the prices are a bit high, we bought some lettuce and two tomatoes, some ice cream for milkshakes, and some hot chocolate mix.  The hot chocolate is for after snorkeling.

Today we took the dinghies into Staniel Cay to drop off our garbage at a free dump.  Usually you have to pay to leave your garbage in the Bahamas, but on Staniel Cay you can walk the short distance to the dump.  If not, you pay $2.50 to leave a small bag or $5.00 to leave a large one.  We had heard that the price was the same for any size bag, but perhaps the Bahamians have figured out that they can get more money for more garbage.

We walked around the island a bit and stopped at the two other stores, the Blue Store and the Pink Store.  As you can see from the photo, the Pink Store is indeed pink.  I didn’t take a picture of the Blue Store, but there was a sign near another blue house which reads, “The Blue Building on the Top of the Hill is the Grocery Store.”  In other words, the people in THAT blue house must have gotten tired of cruisers knocking on their door.  The stores in the Bahamas look like houses and many actually are houses.  There might be a sign in the yard which says “bread.”  Some person in that house is baking bread in her kitchen and will sell it to you.

Besides dumping our garbage, our friends on the other two boats had to go into the marina to use their computers on the Internet.  They don’t have wifi extenders like we do.  We’re able to get a strong signal from our boat up to a mile or more from the wifi provider.  People without extenders have to be practically on top of it to get the signal.  We were at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and quite a few cruisers were there, including JoAnne (Ultra) and Mark (Avalon) getting their e-mail, uploading blogs, talking on MagicJack or Skype, etc.  We are able to do all of that from the comfort of the office on Seas the Day using our Wifi Solutions extender.

The dog in the photo at the top is not Daisy.  He was one of the several dogs and cats we saw in the area where we were visiting the three grocery stores and marina.  None were on leashes but all were very friendly and laid back.

At the Pink Store, a large black dog was sleeping as I walked by and a tiny cat was watching also ).  When we came out of The Blue Store, a small dog came up to us and was very friendly.  It was obvious that she has puppies and she kept leading us down streets.  We were wondering if she was taking us to her pups but eventually she disappeared. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the dogs were friendly, although we are always on guard when walking Daisy.  In fact, Mark now carries a spray with him which is designed to shoot a spray in the face of an aggressive dog to subdue him/her while not permanently causing harm. 

Tomorrow we are considering heading towards Blackpoint, the largest city in the northern and central Exumas which has a laundromat, the first we’ve seen since Nassau.    I’m not planning on using it, as our Splendide washer is working great and I wash small loads every day or two.  There is also a free wifi at Lorraine’s Cafe.  Click here for photos of Staniel Cay.